The WHS Community Service Club and the SGA have been working diligently to organize the seventh annual Week of Service. The Week of Service, taking place March 27 – March 31, aims to bring the community together and help those in need. The week will include several drives and will conclude with an extended homeroom on March 31 for service activities and a student-teacher basketball game.

CSC Advisor Zorana Culjak said, “We try to do our best to see what is needed in the community prior to the Week of Service. That way, we can utilize this information to make the plans and organize what needs to be done.”

One drive that has proven to be successful each year during the Week of Service is the book drive. This year, all children’s books received will be donated to the Westfield-Plainfield Connection and the adult books will be divided between Friends of the Westfield Library and Books Behind Bars, a project that provides books for those incarcerated in New Jersey prisons.

Additionally, monetary donations will be collected during homeroom throughout the week. These funds will be donated to two different organizations. The first organization is the Wounded Warrior Project, in honor of former principal Dr. Derrick Nelson who, Culjak noted, “gave his life trying to help others. He was always looking for ways to support service.”

The other half of the donations will be used to purchase school supplies for underprivileged children in Colombia. Junior CSC board member Belen Arbelaez was inspired to organize this event after visiting an impoverished town in Colombia in 2021. Arbelaez explained, “Last year I brought the idea to hold a clothing drive for this town in Cartagena, Colombia during the Week of Service. I’ve gone back to the community since and it was cool to see them so excited, so I wanted to organize something similar this year.”

To culminate the week, there will be a modified bell schedule on March 31 with an activity period for the student-teacher basketball game. The homerooms that raised the most money will attend the basketball game in person in the gym, while all other homerooms will be watching via livestream.

“I am very excited about the basketball game; it’s great because we see all of our hard work come together and celebrate the homerooms that participated and raised money. I always love to see the staff and students play against each other. But really, I love just seeing the entire community work together for a positive cause, or in this case many positive causes,” said SGA Advisor Callie Campbell.

Also, during the extended activity period, homerooms will be making both thank you cards for veterans and uplifting cards for senior citizens.

Finally, there will be a toiletry drive with donations coming from local dentists and the community through an Amazon wishlist and students will be packing individual toiletry kits with toothbrushes and toothpaste during the extended homeroom on March 31. After assembled, kits will be donated to El Centro in Plainfield and the Westfield Food Pantry. The goal is to assemble 1,000 dental kits, roughly 10 kits per homeroom.

A lot of long-term planning has gone into putting the week together and ensuring it runs smoothly. Culjak explained that the CSC started meeting with the SGA in early January to discuss logistics, goals and responsibilities.

“As teachers, our job is to educate our students on how important it is to look at other people’s needs and try to take time to help others. It’s important that people be aware of the privileges that we all have so we can use it to help others,” said Culjak.

The main way that donations and monetary funds have been collected have been through the QR codes pictured at the bottom of this page. Simply scan the codes on the camera app on your phones, then select the link that pops up for more information about the drives and for ways to donate. All donations are greatly appreciated and significantly impact many underprivileged people both locally and nationally.